Cottonwood Sisters’ annual meeting explores new ways to live and share Benedictine life
A community photo in the monastery chapel was taken by Micah Weber Photography, Cottonwood. (Courtesy Photos/Julie Ferraro)
By Julie A. Ferraro
for the ICR
The fourth weekend of June was a busy one at the Center for Benedictine Life (CBL) at the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood. During “June Days,” annual meetings take place in which the past year is reviewed, elections are held for the monastic council, and plans for the future are discussed. This year’s meeting began on June 20 and was a bit different from previous years.
This year, Oblates (lay associates of the monastery), the Benedictine Cohousing Community (BCC) members, the monastery’s employees and board members shared tables with the Sisters to participate in discussions. Our theme was “Breaking New Ground.” Participants received input from Tim Oberholzer, the CBL executive director and heard Prioress Sister Teresa Jackson’s “State of St. Gertrude” report.
Sister Teresa concisely summarized the pioneering spirit and mission
of the Center for Benedictine Life: “We’re trying new things, we’re taking risks, and we’re doing it together because it’s who we are, it’s who we’ve always been. We will continue because all of us are working together to share this place, our faith, our values, and our prayer with a hurting world that needs what we have to offer.”
Sylvia Bogner, Benedictine Housing Community participant, is collaborating with the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood to create an “eco-spirituality” program. (Courtesy Photo/Julie Ferraro)
Mary K. Schmidt, chair of the newly formed CBL pilot Board of Directors, echoed that sentiment in her presentation. “This is big and bold,” she said. “It’s about us meeting the needs of the times, as Benedictines have throughout their history. It’s meaningful and has significance for the world.”
After the morning’s business concluded, everyone migrated to the monastery chapel, where a community photo was taken on the sanctuary steps. The photo showed the diversity of the scores of people who embody the motto, “We Are the Monastery.”
Midday prayer followed, which included a special ceremony. In the community’s presence, Chris Roberts of Boise made a year-long commitment to the Benedictine Cohousing Community (BCC). She promised fidelity to the lived tradition and practices of the CBL, while committing “to living a Benedictine life including ongoing formation in the Rule, Holy Scripture, and participation in community life.”
The BCC are lay women who have discerned a calling to live a deeper form of Benedictine spirituality. They come to live at the monastery— full-time or part-time — and apply the Rule of St. Benedict to their personal lives, while not professing the vows of obedience, stability and fidelity to the monastic way of life, as the Sisters do. They become part of the community, ministering with the Sisters at the local prison, exploring ways to share insights on eco-spirituality, assisting with health care, and much more.
Sister Teresa added a bit of humor to the ceremony when it came time to present Roberts with a St. Benedict medal – the chain got tangled. While her fingers worked to undo the knots, she noted the symbolism that Roberts “will be tied to us” in “great bonds of love” (while having a chance to play “cat’s cradle”). As everyone joined in the laughter, the medal found its way around Roberts’ neck.
At the midday meal of pizza and wraps, a tribute was offered to retiring Chief Financial Officer Janis Lance, who has spent nearly 38 years in service to St. Gertrude’s.
At the afternoon working session, each table collaborated on a list of words describing the CBL and wrote a statement summarizing the CBL mission. Afterward, community members dispersed to get to know each other more fully and grow in understanding of St. Benedict’s wisdom and its integration with their respective lifestyles. They also discussed how St. Benedict’s wisdom can be shared beyond the monastery.
“June Days” concluded as each Sister received a cup of soil with seeds.
A “Missioning” rite at Sunday Mass concluded the June Days events. Sister Teresa sent the Sisters off with a special gift: a cup of soil with newly planted seeds. The seeded soil reminded each Sister that she is called to break new ground through her ministry and life. In decades past, when more Sisters worked as teachers, nurses, and in other ministries, they would receive their assignments for the coming year during the concluding Mass at June Days.
Those who participated in June Days at the Center for Benedictine Life appreciated the chance to share in these events and strengthen the relationships that bind this unique
community together as it continues evolving the way Benedictine spirituality can be lived and shared.
What is the Center for Benedictine Life?
The Center for Benedictine Life (CBL) at the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho, integrates the vowed Benedictine Sisters, the Oblate Community of St. Gertrude, the Benedictine Cohousing Community, and the monastery’s employees, friends and benefactors. This larger community shares the Benedictine charism and spirituality of healing hospitality, grateful simplicity and creative peacemaking. They benefit from in-person and online programs available at Spirit Center, along with the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude and the Inn at St. Gertrude, a bed and breakfast, all on the monastery campus.
New forms of leadership are being developed, with laity stepping up to join a pilot board of directors that will guide the CBL into the future. Ongoing formation is offered to all, including employees, who have an opportunity to discover the history and vitality of Benedictine life at the Monastery of St. Gertrude.
Those seeking to deepen their relationship with God are invited to spend time experiencing the CBL dynamic, whether as artists-in-residence, live-in or daytime volunteers, along with those hoping to explore new ways of living the monastic life. As they continue their lives beyond the monastery walls, they take with them what they’ve learned, sharing it with their families, friends and local communities.
“We are all part of a larger community; we all need each other,” Sister Teresa Jackson, prioress, has said. “And the world needs St. Benedict now more than ever.”
More information is available on the website stgertrudes.org
What is the Benedictine Cohousing Community?
Some years ago, the realization that a new form of living Benedictine spirituality — “beyond the walls and beyond the vows,” as Prioress Sister Teresa Jackson describes it — became quite clear for the members of the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood.
This pioneering new venture was created to invite women of all Christian denominations to live Benedictine, monastic life outside the traditional requirements of Religious life. The emerging community of the Benedictine Cohousing Community (BCC) offers a chance to nurture a new form of monastic community in the midst of an existing women’s monastery.
The initial Benedictine Cohousing Community residents moved into the monastery in 2023. They are a group of single women who do not make vows or a life commitment, but covenant to explore how to live according to the Rule of St. Benedict, adapted for new circumstances in the 21st century.
The women who are discerning their call are adventurous and courageous. They are learning to live in community and desire to delve deeply into applying Benedictine spirituality to their lives. They join the vowed Sisters for daily prayer, meals and various activities and live in the monastery as their schedule permits—some full-time, others part-time.
More information is available on the website stgertrudes.org/benedictine-cohousing-companions
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